It took some serious gummy bear bribery to get him to sit in the seat and smile like that, you'd never know he was whining and complaining the moment before and after the picture was taken. LOL I just buckled him quickly to get the pic so don't be too critical of the harness buckle height and all that!
Well we finally got the Frontiers in today which is a good thing because we've been getting tons of pre-orders for them. Upon looking at the seat and putting Kobe in it (Katie is in SA at Grandma's house this week so I'll have to wait to see how she fits in it but I can tell it will be way too small in 5-point harness mode) - I'm a little unsure where it's place is in the car seat line up.
First of all it is a forward facing only seat (the sticker says not use before age 2 and 25lbs), so it's obviously not a seat a child could move out of their infant seat into....so you'd still have to purchase an infant seat AND a convertible seat before you could use this seat. I took a tape measure and measured from the seat bottom to the highest harness height and it was only 17 inches...smaller than the Recaro which IS a convertible seat and MUCH smaller than the Regent. It sort of seems like a slightly bigger Boulevard without a base that converts to a booster seat. My fear is that this seat will encourage earlier booster use because it is likely most children will outgrow the harness around the same time they would most other convertible seats and instead of moving into a Regent at that point, the parents will just use the seat as a booster instead.
From birth to age 8 or 9 all you need from the Britax line up is the Companion (infant seat) till it is outgrown, then the Marathon or Boulevard and once that is outgrown around age 4, the Regent until age 8 or 9. So where does the Frontier fit in?? As a $280 booster seat?? Is it supposed to replace the Regent? If that is the case, the only thing that is accomplished is that the child will be in 5-point harness for considerably less time.
Another thing that concerns me is that the seat is really heavy, probably at least 20-25 pounds - it feels much heavier than a Marathon. So when this thing is used as a booster seat, I sincerely hope the parents tether it in because that would be a LOT of weight behind a child in an accident pushing them into the seat belt if it's not tethered. I didn't read the manual but it doesn't say anywhere on the stickers on the seat to use the tether in booster mode - that scares me. So I feel like this seat will encourage earlier booster use and the booster itself might be dangerous because it is so heavy. :(
It's been such a big seller and I had high hopes for it but now I'm not sure what to think or if I should continue to offer it on Hip Monkey. Oh another thing that sucks is that you have to adjust the harness height on the BACK of the seat which means you will have to uninstall the seat to adjust the harness. Honestly, it seems like a smaller, crappier version of the Safeguard Child Seat that pushes kids into a booster much to soon. Sigh.
4 comments:
The Britax site lists the Regent as having 19.1" top slots and the Frontier having 18.25" top height so it should only be an inch less, but that doesn't at all sound like your experience. It would be neat to put the harness on the top setting for both a Frontier and Marathon and compare just how much room is left above the shoulder with a child in the seat. Sometimes when kids sit in the seat they will have more room above the shoulder and sometimes less. And we all know they fit in the seat differently once it's installed.
I think Britax is just trying to compete with all the new combo seats that the "economy" brands have out. Some people have the mind set that seats for one purpose are a waste of money. Think about how well the Cosco Alpha Omega Elite sells because they market it as the ONLY seat you will ever need. Since Britax is in business to make money, it only makes sense for them to have a product that is similar to their competitors, but that folks will just buy because of the Britax name. Plus the Frontier is FAA approved, isn't it? The Regent isn't so if it does provide any more growing room over the Marathon, I could see a place for it in the line-up as a HWH seat that will fit on an airplane.
I also read the thing is a BEAST to install...so you might want to try that out and see how it goes. You many not like even more. Apparently is has a belt path similar to the Radian, low and very flush to the back of the seat, so long buckle stalks will obviously be problematic.
As much as we would like, we are not going to convert everyone to think the way we do. So we just do our best to educate parents about their options so that they do keep their children harnessed for as long as possible. Some people ask me, "So if my kid outgrows the Regent at age 8, I won't need a booster, right?" Uh...NO!!! Obviously boosters have their place - for older children.
I just hope they don't eliminate the Regent all together. Although with all the business they get from KDMF and other parents because of KDMF, I don't think that will happen anytime soon.
Great pics, BTW!
thanks for your honesty. i'm glad i got your opinion on this. i'm sure there will be much talk about this seat and arguments from all over the place. just do what feels right in your heart.
It's a cool looking seat, but that's too bad you didn't like it much. Hopefully the people who have already bought it are happy with it when they get it though! :-)
I was initially disappointed in the advertised 18.25 inches. When you took the measurement, did you compress the padding in the seat? That gives a more accurate top harness slot height.
The Frontier can be LATCHed in booster mode with lower anchors which is great because it doesn't become a projectile in the car in a crash when unoccupied (most people do not seatbelt with booster when unoccupied). I doubt it allows top tether though. However, if the center of gravity is low like on the Radian, that's really not a big concern.
I heard too that it is a BEAST to install - more so than a Regent.
I think if the harness slot height is 18 inches even, then its worth continuing to sell on the site - that's close to the Graco Nautilus (which I also think would be great for us to sell).
Do you want me to add the Frontier to the list of recommended seats on the foundation website?
Post a Comment